UEFA's team of technical experts, headed by former Scotland coach Andy Roxburgh, have voted Xavi Hernandez player of Euro 2008.
The efficient and classy Barcelona midfielder was recognised as the outstanding player of the tournament after Spain's 1-0 victory over Germany in Sunday night's final.
The panel selected nine Spanish players in a 23-member squad of Euro 2008. H
owever, there was no place for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star who scored 43 goals for Manchester United last season and is a leading candidate for Fifa player of the year, after he failed to reproduce his best form.
Roxburgh, who is head of Uefa's Technical Committee, said that Spain's superior technical ability at the championships in Austria and Switzerland had earned the title for Luis Aragones' team.
"We have chosen Xavi because he epitomises the Spanish style of play. He was extremely influential in the whole possession, passing and penetrating kind of game that Spain played," said Roxburgh, the day after the final in Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium.
"We are not all that surprised – because for more than a decade now, the top youth teams in Europe have been Spanish; we have been watching Xavi and others in this squad from a very young age.
"(Fernando] Torres scored the winner in a youth final, and (Cesc] Fabregas was the star of the under-17s. In this tournament, Fabregas' influence in the periods when he did play was extremely significant."
While Torres took the plaudits in Vienna as game-winner and man of the match in the final, the brilliant Xavi was equally influential in the victory. His Castrol performance figures confirmed a display of startling efficiency. He made the most passes in the game, with 62, and boasted a 94 per cent pass completion rate.
Uefa's official website noted: "On this night of nights for Spanish football Xavi was determined to make his mark. Not only was he a figure of perpetual motion, covering more distance (11.44km) than anyone else on the field, he also received the ball from colleagues on 53 occasions – 20 times more than midfield pivot Marcos Senna – and made 62 passes, completing 54 of them at an average of 87 per cent.
"Xavi was involved in the neat one-touch exchanges that marked out Spain's play. The Furia Roja earned seven corners in the game, and Xavi took every one, keeping the German defence guessing by varying between short and long deliveries."
Roxburgh explained that the nine-man technical committee, which also included former national team coaches such as Gerard Houllier and Roy Hodgson, did not include players from teams who were eliminated in group play, such as France.
Runners-up Germany had three players in the squad – defender Philipp Lahm, captain Michael Ballack and attacking midfielder Lukas Podolski, who scored three goals.
Only one player made it from the disappointing, defence-minded Italian team, which went out on penalties to Spain in the quarter-finals – goalkeeper and team captain Gianluigi Buffon, who kept out a penalty against Romania and made a standout save in Italy's 2-0 victory over France.
Semi-finalists Russia had four players in the squad, including strikers Roman Pavlyuchenko and Andrei Arshavin, the Zenit St Petersburg playmaker who helped his club beat Rangers to win the Uefa Cup.
Turkey also made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, losing 3-2 to Germany, and had one player in the squad, Hamit Altintop.
The full article contains 583 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
